Amy and Dan are a lovely couple who did not let a few tornadoes spoil their outdoor wedding. :) How great is that? Yes, Amy and Dan were to be married in an outdoor ceremony at the Arrowhead Inn in Durham, NC at high noon when the weather channel was predicting, I kid you not, a “100% chance of severe storms.” That’s not a very good percent. :D But we got there and took pictures of Amy getting ready and, miraculously, despite them repeatedly announcing tornado warnings on the radio, it was merely overcast and their wedding was held outside at high noon against all odds. :) We were even able to take family and friend photographs AND the newlywed pictures afterward! It didn’t rain until the reception luncheon (when the lights went out briefly), but that was really all that happened. They were so lucky!

Their venue and their vendors couldn’t have been more wonderful, and neither could Amy and Dan’s fantastic family and friends. Amy’s family traveled in from Japan and they were married by Dan’s brother, a high school principal. It was all very sweet and low-key, just like the beautiful couple themselves. :)

Date: April 16, 2011

Venue: The Arrowhead Inn, Durham NC

Flowers: Special Event Florals, Nancy Dawson

Guitarist: Randy Reed

Officiant: Walter Finnigan

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Amy is the definition of a blushing bride… not only because she is getting married, but because she is pregnant. :) Amy and Dan are expecting a baby girl in August!

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This family is a family of cameras. I think everyone there had a camera, large or small, video or still. Below and to the right is our handsome groom, taking photographs of his lovely soon-to-be wife getting her hair done. :) Amy is a high school music teacher trained in classical singing, but she is hoping to one day become a photographer as well! And we will most certainly welcome her into the ranks because she is a wonderful person. :)

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Amy looked gorgeous! Very beautiful, natural, and happy. :)

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Proof that, even as tornadoes ran rampant through parts of Raleigh, the sun did come out that day (during their first kiss!) for perhaps a few seconds:

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I can’t resist me a willow tree. ;)

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Amy and Dan held a beautiful indoor luncheon for their wedding reception inside the Arrowhead Inn (the innkeepers are lovely and make EXCELLENT food!).

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In conclusion, I had a wonderful day with you, Amy and Dan, and wish you the best of luck in your life and marriage! I do hope that I get to meet that baby girl soon and of course see you again. :) Thank you and congratulations! I’ll leave you all with these wise words of wisdom…

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Vince and Jackson are city dogs. Kind of. Actually, not really. Jackson’s pretty terrified of traffic and elevators, and Vince is perfectly comfortable chewing on sticks and chasing his bro around the park. However, their parents are city people and scheduled a portrait session for their dogs before their downtown Raleigh engagement session, so we took the pups to a nearby park and let them run free (sort of)!

Vince is the Boston Terrier (a breed I’d been looking forward to photographing for such a long time!) and was everything I thought a Boston Terrier should be… a hilarious diva dog. He was very smart and insisted upon being in front of the camera at all times. I had to delete a ton of pictures of Jackson because they all had a giant Vince blur running in front of the camera like, “HEY GUYS HEY GUYS HEY GUYS!!!!” Vince enjoys pepperoni, chasing Jackson, and chewing on sticks.

Jackson is an adorable mutt who belonged to Shannon before she lived with Phil. He’s very protective of Shannon and doesn’t particularly want to like Phil, but you can tell he does anyway. He goes back and forth between trying to ignore Phil and running up to Phil like, “HI PHIL HI PHIL HI PHIL!!!!” Jackson enjoys swimming, chewing on sticks, and my husband Geoff.

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Both of the pups live together now with Shannon and Phil and clearly get along splendidly. :)

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Does anyone else see the resemblance to Fidget here?

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I love the picture on the left. :) They’re so cute together!

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Hahaha look at those eyes on the left hand side… Oh, Vince.

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“Sticks are the most delicious.”

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I love you, Vince+Jackson!! You will see a little bit more of them in my next post, Shannon and Phil’s engagement session. :)

So our friend Amber of Raimbow Tree made some new awesome  headbands, hats, gloves, and other adorable crafty things for spring! Of course, this called for a spring version of our previous post with Alaskan Kate and Raimbow Tree.  Amber brought a giant tub full of gear, dressed Kate up, and we trekked out into a field to have our product/model photo shoot! I was super excited to hang out with my ladies, root through all of Amber’s awesome new products, and photograph Kate… who needs basically no instruction whatsoever (except to NOT look at Amber or Geoff because one of them would crack up and we’d have to start all over). We had a great time and, despite Kate’s serious and soultry model face, we laughed our way through all of this.

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Kate, who’s a teacher, looks like she’s about to go kick Rainbow Brite’s butt in these pictures. I think it’s the headband coupled with the socks.

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THIS HEADBAND RULES. And thank you, awesome wind, for helping with these shots.

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HAHAHA We all titled the following shots as Emerging because of the following:

Amber: Hey… why don’t we get one like, you know, of you emerging from the woods?

Kate: …Like what?

Amber: Like, get back into the woods… and just come out!

Carolyn: Grab onto those branches! Look up and to the right!

Amber: And just… come out!! We need more movement!!

Kate: WHAT?!

Hahahaha. I love the way these turned out despite me and Amber shouting contradicting directions at Kate while she emerged from the woods, hahaha. Cracks me up.

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The shots below are titled The Post-Apocolyptic Shoe which we thought was very Anthropologie… and they’ll probably steal this idea as soon as they see it. This came about via the following:

Kate: There’s a gnarled, chewed-up shoe back there.

Amber: Let’s use it!

Carolyn: Really?

::Amber pokes the shoe a few times with the end of a stick and very carefully picks it up by the tip of the stick and hands it to Kate::

Amber: Here it is! Don’t let the gloves touch it.

Carolyn: Okay! Well. Um. Put the shoe over your shoulder. Look at me. Okay good, now look down at the shoe. Perfect.

HAHA.

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NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC.

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Head on over to Amber’s Raimbow Tree Etsy store to see more of her awesome stuff!